BURNT GENERATION:CONTEMPORARY IRANIAN PHOTOGRAPHYAPRIL 21 – JULY 10, 2016

This guide serves as a viewer’s supplement to the exhibition Burnt Generation: Contemporary Iranian Photography and contains information about the works on view, questions for looking and discussion, and suggested readings.

You may download this guide from the museum’s website at mocp.org/education/resources-for-educators.php. To schedule a free docent-led tour, please complete the form here. mocp.org/education/tours-and-print-viewings.php.

Viewer’s Guide

mocp.org

Azadeh Akhlaghi By an Eye Witness, Taghi Arani, 2012

The 2015-2016 season is sponsored by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Illinois Arts Council Agency, the Abramson Arts Foundation, and Nixon Peabody, LLCP.

Azadeh Akhlaghi By an Eye Witness, Taghi Arani, 2012

Viewer’s Guide Contents

Introduction 1

Artists 2

Questions for Looking and Discussion 6

Suggested Reading and Viewing 8

Iran is a country in perpetual transition, one marked by

a dichotomy between public and private and the clash of

traditional and modern values that shape those spheres.

While many Iranians today are not practicing Muslims, the

governing Islamic Republic under which they live demands

strict conformity to its religious tenants. The Burnt Generation,

a moniker given to those born between 1963 and 1980,

witnessed the profound social and political upheaval of

the 1979 revolution that overthrew the Pahlavi monarchy,

and the Iran-Iraq war that followed in its wake. Leveraging

the revolutionary chaos that instated the Grand Ayatollah

Ruhollah Khomeini, Iraq invaded Iran in September of 1980 to

regain long disputed border territories, ushering in 8 years of

armed conflict and trench warfare.

It is this complex history of social and political unrest that

provides the context for the photographs in this exhibition.

The artists in Burnt Generation have experienced these

drastic cultural shifts firsthand. While their approaches to

photographic storytelling vary, each offers a unique glimpse

into daily life in Iran, imparting insights that might otherwise

be unfamiliar to a Western audience steeped in the clichés

and stereotypes propagated by the media.

Several themes emerge: The cultural threads and time-

honored traditions that unite the country in spite of decades of

tumult are the purview of Abbas Kowsari and Sadegh Tirafkan.

Artists Babak Kazemi, Shadi Ghadirian, and Gohar Dashti

work with the personal, political, and social consequences of a

war they know well; while Newsha Tavakolian and artistic duo

Ali & Ramyar take on the isolation and loneliness of youth at

odds with the strictures of the Islamic Republic, and the divide

between public and private life that drives their desolation.

This public-private dichotomy manifests itself in every aspect

of contemporary life in Iran. For example, women must abide

by the Islamic dress code and cover their hair and bodies

appropriately. The arts and culture are also censored. Iranian

Introduction

Gohar DashtiIran, Untitled, 2013

rappers, death metal rockers, and punks hold concerts

in private houses in which dozens and even hundreds

of people partake, but are interrogated for “propagating

decadence and tarnishing the image of the holy regime of

the Islamic Republic” just as soon as they release an album.

For photographers, too, the arts are a site of resistance,

reclamation, and imagination. Under any regime where

dissent is not tolerated, artistic metaphor becomes a crucial

strategy, one that imparts new and unofficial perspectives.

Burnt Generation moves beyond mediated imagery of Iran and

enters directly into the world of the artists who live and work

there.

Robyn Day and Anahid GhorbaniColumbia College Chicago graduate students

Burnt Generation was curated by Fariba Farshad Founding Director of Candlestar and Photo London

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Malu Halasa, Transit Tehran: Young Iran and Its Inspirations (London: Garnet Publishing, 2008), p. 7.1

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Gohar Dashti explores fraught social and political issues

through the carefully staged photographs of her series,

Iran, Untitled. By tightly clustering groups of people such as

travelers or soldiers in the middle of a desert landscape,

Dashti creates mysterious tableaus that suggest the isolation

of specific populations within Iranian society. At the same

time, she underscores the insularity of her select groups by

providing one element that compositionally binds the people

together, such as a bathtub, a rug, or orange traffic cones.

Dashti describes these images as haikus exploring the

relationship between form and content. “It’s like objectifying

a feeling; that is how an image reveals itself,” she explains.

Ultimately, her work suggests the universal human need

to bond with others, as well as the common urge to seek

distance from the unfamiliar.

Ali Nadjian and Ramyar Manouchehrzadeh have worked

collaboratively in the field of photography for many years. Their

practice explores the cultural impact of the Iranian Revolution

over nearly four decades and documents the rigid dualities

of public and private life imposed on Iranians under the

Islamic Republic. Their series We Live in a Paradoxical Society

represents the strict divide between domestic and public

spheres, the former marked by individual expression and the

latter by necessary self-censorship. As the artists explain:

“Home is considered a safe space to live in which we are free

to think, dress, and behave the way we want. On the contrary,

there’s a life outside our homes full of fundamental and basic

differences in which we are attacked for deviations, and

pretensions are required in order to survive.”

Gohar DashtiIranian, b. 1980

Ali & RamyarIranian, b. 1976, b. 1980

Gohar DashtiIran, Untitled, 2013

Ali & RamyarWe Live in a Paradoxical Society, 2010

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Newsha TavakolianIranian, b. 1981

Shadi GhadirianIranian, b. 1974

In her series Look, Newsha Tavakolian delves into the unseen,

private lives of Iranians. Peering into apartments in her

building, she presents tenants who have lived within them

for more than ten years. These photographs tell the story of

middle class youths attempting to cope with their isolation

from a conformist society, and battling with their lack of hope

for the future. Over a period of six months, always at 8 pm,

Tavakolian fixed her camera on a tripod in front of a window

and tried to capture the moments that best illustrated her

subjects’ anxieties and concerns. Her neighbors are caught

within the frame of that window, their images echoing the cold,

nondescript buildings seen in the distance.

Shadi Ghadirian’s Nil Nil series addresses the symbolic

presence of political ideology and war within the home.

Transforming the domestic space with the addition of military

objects, she reminds us that war has a silent but powerful

presence in people’s minds and innermost private lives. In

White Square, Ghadirian has photographed objects of military

use—a helmet, canteen, ammunition belt, or grenade—that

she decorates with a red silk ribbon. Recontextualized, these

accessories of war become unfamiliar and appear at once

menacing and delicate, their aggressiveness tempered by an

element of the feminine.

Newsha TavakolianLook

Shadi GhadirianWhite Square, 2009

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Babak KazemiIranian, b. 1983

Abbas KowsariIranian, b. 1970

Combining markers of conflict and domesticity, Babak Kazemi

offers a commentary on the Iran/Iraq War, the longest battle of

the twentieth century, and the second longest violent conflict

after the Vietnam War. In Khorramshahr Number by Number,

Kazemi superimposes photographs of local people and scenes

onto house number plates from destroyed homes in the war-

torn city of Khorramshahr, located on Iran’s border with Iraq.

Openly blaming the nearby oil fields for the political upheaval

he witnessed, Kazemi prints his photographs in petroleum

products. The works symbolize the 75,000 displaced residents

of the city, bringing into view the human and financial costs of

war. Kazemi’s Souvenir of a Friend and Neighbor Country (2006)

presents bullets from the conflict, which, photographed

individually, take on a strange, chilling beauty as a memorial

to Khorramshahr.

Concerned with the legacy of the Iran/Iraq War, Abbas

Kowsari’s Shade of Earth series documents the pilgrimage

that hundreds of thousands of Iranians make to the border

between the two countries during the New Year holidays. This

journey, known as Rahian-e Noor, commemorates the millions

of soldiers who died during eight years of trench warfare

from 1980 to 1988. It is paired here with Kowsari’s hopeful

series Light. Inspired by the centrality of light in all major

world religions, which serves as a universal metaphor for

truth, knowledge, and enlightenment, Kowsari photographs

the green-hued illuminations of Islamic rituals. His radiant

pictures reveal that a respect for religious traditions is very

much alive in Iran, particularly in its old neighborhoods, towns,

and villages. He has taken many photographs over the years

on two particular nights of Shiite celebrations, the night of

Ashura and the birth of the Twelfth Imam, documenting the

decorations, lamps, colored papers, and festive installations

made by the people in their communities.

Babak KazemiKhoramshahr number by number, 2006-2010

Abbas KowsariLight, Tehran/5th July, 2012

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Azadeh AkhlaghiIranian, b. 1978

Sadegh TirafkanIranian, 1965 - 2013

In this project, Azadeh Akhlaghi creates images of past events

for which photographs do not exist. Her process specifically

comments on the many dramatic, tragic deaths that mark

Iran’s modern history. Pairing images with explanatory

texts in both English and Farsi, each work is a thoughtful

reconstruction of historical events based on a combination

of archived information, news reports, and conflicting

accounts from witnesses. Assassinations, torture, accidents,

suspicious and natural deaths are all represented in the

series; each death—whether of a political activist, intellectual,

or journalist— marks a turning point in Iran’s turbulent modern

history, crossing political and factional lines, to which all

Iranians can relate.

Figurative images are a mainstay of Persian art, but rarely are

they presented nude. Sadegh Tirafkan has long been inspired

by the human form. In researching his projects, Tirafkan

encountered ancient Iranian art depicting the naked bodies

of the Secaha tribe and noble pre-Achaemenians Kings, who

painted their torsos and limbs with abstract and figurative

forms. Observing the male role in traditional Iranian society

from this historical standpoint, Tirafkan continues this rare

practice, embellishing his body with decorative wood blocks

using the Mohr technique, which stamps traditional patterns

onto prints and fabrics. His two series presented here are an

effort to unite the curvatures of the human body with Persian

calligraphy and figurative images from ancient Persian art,

which more freely depicted the nude.

Azadeh AkhlaghiBy an Eye Witness, Taghi Arani, 2012

Sadegh TirafkanBody curves, 2003

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Questions for Looking and Discussing

1.

How does the portrayal of contemporary Iranian culture in

Burnt Generation compare with your impressions of Iran in US

media? Do you see any parallels or similarities in any of the

works on view with your own experiences or conceptions of

Iran? Or do you find the history, politics, and culture of Iran as

represented in these works dissimilar to your own views?

2.

Media circulating within and coming from Iran, including

artwork, is under the tight control of the Islamic Republic.

Given that, how do the artists in Burnt Generation represent

their own experiences in ways that shed light on the realities

of contemporary Iranian society? Do you think they have

found strategies to convey freedom of expression despite the

censure of the government?

3.

Is it essential to know the political and historical context

within Iran to understand the works on view in Burnt

Generation? Do some of the suggested reading and viewing.

How do your interpretations of the photographs change as you

learn more about the country?

4.

How do the artists in Burnt Generation convey their personal

experiences within a particular geopolitical region and culture

to a global audience that might have limited knowledge of the

circumstances they encounter in their daily lives? Does the

meaning of their works change with the audience? Or do you

think the reception is the same within Iran as it is here in the

United States or elsewhere?

5.

What visual strategies do Newsha Tavakolian and artistic duo

Ali & Ramyar use to illustrate the divide between the public

and private lives of Iranians? What is the emotional tone of

their work? Compare and contrast Ali & Ramyar’s We Live in a

Paradoxical Society with Tavakolian’s Look. What can we infer

about public life in Iran from their series? How about private

life?

6.

Do you experience a duality between public and private life

in your own culture? How? Do politics and religion affect your

daily life?

7.

What does Newsha Tavakolian’s series of portraits suggest

about youth in Iran? How do you read the expressions,

gestures, and posture of her subjects? How does Tavakolian’s

choice of background and framing convey a specific feeling or

idea about her generation?

8.

Sadegh Tirafkan pairs the masculine role in traditional

Iranian society with the smooth, graceful curves of the male

body and forms drawn from the Persian alphabet and ancient

art. What do you think is his intention in doing so? What does

he suggest about artistic traditions?

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9.

What beliefs about masculinity does Sadegh Tirafkan portray

in his images? Does he appear to challenge stereotypes or

embrace them or both? Why do you think so?

10.

Despite the fact that many Iranian citizens are secular, there

is a respect for tradition and ritual that runs deep in Iranian

culture. How does Abbas Kowsari depict this faith in his

photographs? What do you think is the significance of the

metaphor of “light”? What is the difference, in your opinion,

between the rituals Kowsari depicts and the religious laws of

the Islamic Republic?

11.

Compare and contrast the representation of war in the works

of Babak Kazemi, Shadi Ghadirian, and Gohar Dashti. Which

is your favorite approach? Why?

12.

Gohar Dashti describes her work as “objectifying a feeling.”

What feelings do her works convey and what do they

suggest about human nature? What do you think the desert

represents in her images? How does she use metaphors in

her work?

13.

Why does Babak Kazemi use house number plates from

destroyed homes and a petroleum printing process? What do

these choices symbolize? How do you experience the effects

of war through his works?

14.

Why do you think Shadi Ghadirian decorates the objects and

materials of warfare with red ribbons? What does this choice

signify? Why does she photograph these objects in domestic

settings? What might that tell us about us about the Iran-Iraq

war?

15.

Compare and contrast Azadeh Akhlaghi’s reconstructions of

specific historical events with Gohar Dashti’s similarly staged,

but unspecific scenes in the desert. Both series reflect on

the political and social turbulence of Iranian society in very

different ways. How? Which body of work do you think is more

successful? Why?

Ali & RamyarWe Live in a Paradoxical Society, 2010

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Suggested Reading and Viewing

Kader Abdolah. My Father’s Notebook: A Novel of Iran. New York: Harper Perennial, 2007.

Michael Axworthy. Revolutionary Iran: A History of the Islamic Republic. New York: Penguin, 2013.

Arthur Danto. Shirin Neshat. New York: Rizzoli, 2010.

Shirin Ebadi. Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope. New York: Random House, 2006.

Asghar Farhadi. A Separation. Sony Pictures Classics, 2011.

Malu Halasa. Transit Tehran: Young Iran and Its Inspirations. London: Garnet Publishing, 2008.

Rashid Khalidi. Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American Dominance in the Middle East. Boston: Beacon Press, 2009.

Hooman Majd. The Ayatollah Begs to Differ: The Paradox of Modern Iran. New York: Anchor, 2009.

Afshin Molavi. The Soul of Iran: A Nation’s Struggle for Freedom. New York: W.W. Norton, 2005.

Azar Nafisi et al. My Sister, Guard Your Veil; My Brother, Guard Your Eyes: Uncensored Iranian Voices. Boston: Beacon Press, 2006.

Shirin Neshat. Women Without Men. Indie Crush, 2009.

Marjane Satrapi. The Complete Persepolis. New York: Pantheon Graphic Novels, 2007.

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